ON THE JOB

Bringing back character is detailed work

Carpenter gave up career in science to build a niche in restoring what once was there

July 29, 2005|By Leslie Mann, Special to the Tribune

Equipped with a degree in physics, Dan Otto once seemed destined for a career in a science lab or a high school classroom. But 21 months in Vietnam altered his course.

"It changed me dramatically," Otto recalls. "I decided I wanted work that was satisfying, and that 9-to-5, suit-and-tie work was not for me."

So Otto turned his avocation into a vocation and became a carpenter. As he honed his skills in cabinetry, furniture-making and trim work, he carved a niche--restoration carpentry.

Otto re-creates what was once there, either by duplicating original parts or by using salvaged pieces he has collected from demolished houses and barns.

For a client with an 1868 house in Geneva, Otto built a cupola and widow's walk that was true to the period. For a Marengo client with an aging Greek Revival house, he restored a porch that was suffering from a combination of neglect and remuddling. A Batavia client hired him to replace the original 1868 stairway balusters and handrail on his stairway, which had been sacrificed for 1960s-era iron railings.

At times, Otto is called on to add architectural details to new structures, so they complement the main house. To an Aurora client's architecturally nude garden shed, Otto added windows, a weathervane and a cupola from the 1920s, the same era when the client's house was built. He performed a similar act for an Elizabeth client who was transforming an outbuilding into a guest house. He dressed it with 1800s artifacts--columns, fretwork and a Dutch door.

Otto's more public works include restorations of the barn at the Oscar Swan Inn in Geneva and the schoolhouse at the Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles.

For reference, Otto uses early photographs of the house, old millwork catalogs, neighbors' houses from the same era or, if all else fails, his own instinct.

Otto's showroom is his own house in Elburn, which he shares with his wife, Jan Jorstad, and their Australian shepherd, Fiona. Made of salvaged parts, he built it in 1984 but it looks like it dates back to the village's 19th Century roots. Attached to the back of the house is Otto's workshop, anchored by a 32-foot, 145-year-old, red pine beam from a barn in Kaneville. The floorboards are from the same barn.

Otto's workshop is equipped with an electric table saw, joiner and lathe, and hand tools that date back to 1850. "I'm always looking to upgrade my equipment with something older," he says. He burns his scraps in a wood stove.

Behind the house is Otto's barn, which he dismantled at its original Maple Park location, and rebuilt here. It's a woodworker's candy store, filled with salvaged balusters, windows, doors, fretwork, columns, ironwork, weathervanes, lightning rods, plus a fun assortment of antiques including wooden sleds, breadboxes and painted signs.

Homeowners, builders and interior decorators visit the barn by appointment when they are searching for stuff to give new houses some old-house character.

"Everyone doesn't have the time or money to restore an old house," says Otto. "But they want a piece of the past for their newer houses--a mantel, door or window. The more uncertain our future is, the more people crave these connections to the past."

After 33 years in the business, Otto's name and 1966 pickup are familiar to area developers, who call him before they knock down old houses and barns. Otto stores what he can for re-use. "But I'm only one man. There is too much to be saved," he says.

Carpentry is in his blood, says Otto, who grew up in Wheaton. His research tells him his family and the trade are linked back to the 1700s.

Becoming a physicist might have been more lucrative, says Otto. "But money is not what it's about," he says. "I think it was Katharine Hepburn who said you should do what pleases you. Then at least one person will be happy."

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One on one with Dan Otto

Q. If you could go back in time to the days when many of your clients' homes were built, would you?

A. Yes, I would have loved to have lived 100 years earlier. I don't need a microwave, computer or dishwasher. In those days, you were judged by how hard you worked, not by how many things you had.

Q. What's your favorite tool in your workshop?

A. My No. 1 Stanley plane. It's the smallest of my collection of old wood and metal planes. I use them to reproduce sections of old moldings.

Q. What's your pet peeve?

A. The big, new houses that I call garage-mahals. They're not built to last, they're out of proportion, too big for their lots and take so many resources to heat and cool. But some people just want that space.